Tenant pack

Sustainable Student Accommodation

You’re in a GreenPad!

Welcome to your GreenPad student home, come on in...

www.greenpad.co.uk

Students’

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CONTENTS

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Welcome page

4

Your EPC – What it is and Why it Matters

5

Energy Use & Our Environment - What’s the Link?

6

Check List – What to Do Once You’re In

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10 Top Tips to Save Energy & Money

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5 Top Tips for Sustainable Cooking & Washing

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5 Top Tips for Saving Water

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Avoiding Damp - Key Actions

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Be Super Sustainable - Easy Ways to Make a World Of Difference

12-13

Recycling & Waste - How, Where and What to Recycle

14-15

Useful Info - How to Read Your Meter

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Find us on Campus

SAVE MONEY, SAVE ENERGY, LIVE GREEN

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HELLO and welcome to your This tenant pack has been designed to make your time in your GreenPad as pleasant and energy-efficient as possible, saving you money but keeping you warm!

Your home is double glazed and insulated as standard and is classified as Bronze, Silver, Gold or even Platinum depending on its sustainability status.

You can find out more about this rating on our website (greenpad.co.uk) and you can also speak to your landlord.

There are lots of things your landlord can do to make sure your home is sustainable and energy efficient, but it’s the way you live within it that really brings the bills down! Try some (or all) of our top tips in this booklet to help save energy, cash AND the environment.

“Its the way you live within it that really brings the bills down!”

In addition take a look at our moving in checklist to make sure you’re doing everything you can to be a good tenant, but also to protect you as a tenant, and read our useful info on boilers and bills it may save you a few pennies. find more info at www.greenpad.co.uk

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YOUR EPC – WHY DOES IT MATTER? EPC stands for Energy Performance Certificate; it is a survey carried out by trained inspectors and is a good indicator of how energy efficient your house is, in other words, how energy hungry it is and how much it will cost to run.

This is your EPC grade, E isn’t great and A is the best it can be in terms of energy efficiency, we’re talking solar panel heaven. The right hand side shows you what the environmental impact of this rating is, i.e the expected CO2 output from running the home. Both sides have two little arrows, one showing what it is currently and one showing what it could be potentially.

(92 to 100) (81 to 91) (69 to 80) (55 to 68) (39 to 54) (21 to 38) (1 to 20)

A B Current

C

Potential

69

D

71

E F G

The closer you get to A, the more energy efficient changes have been made to the property, this means it will most likely need less energy to run, making it cheaper, and also less damaging to the environment as it needs less fuel to run and therefore less C02 is produced.

It is a legal requirement for your landlord to show the EPC to you as tenants, but remember not all houses need them (if you are all on individual contracts your landlord doesn’t need one) but it’s worth asking to make sure.

This doesn’t mean you should panic if it’s rated as an E, for example, EPC’s can be quite subjective, and as a GreenPad we have to make sure it is insulated and double glazed as standard anyway.

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ENERGY USE, SUSTAINABILITY & OUR ENVIRONMENT – WHAT’S THE LINK?

The main greenhouse gas which causes climate change is carbon dioxide (CO2). A significant proportion of this comes from the little things we do every day like leaving lights on, overfilling the kettle or having the heating on full pelt. In a single year you alone will be responsible for the emission of around 6-9 tonnes of CO2 – that’s enough to fill a hot air balloon to you and me. If you also consider what this would look like in a single household, a street, your town or city and then the country - that’s a lot of hot air balloons!

But we can make changes, and simple things you can start doing now in your GreenPad home really add up and they really do make a big difference to our local, and global, environment.

Saving energy for example (cue the snores) can seriously save you money as well as helping the environment, it needn’t be dull or boring and can be seriously rewarding we promise!

“Saving energy can save you money and help the environment, it needn’t be dull or boring!”

find more info at www.greenpad.co.uk

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CHECKLIST Before you settle in and get comfy, have a look at our checklist to make sure you’re clued up with general housing stuff as well as your energy.

Make sure you have your landlords contact details this means you know who to contact for what, in case of an emergency or just a simple fix Check you have seen the EPC (see page 4) Do an inventory of the property, so you know what’s in there and in what condition - this is really useful to have in case there are problems with your deposit at the end of your contract, get your landlord to sign it so you both have a copy.

Check your meter and take readings - skip to page 14 for a guide on this

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Ask your landlord who your energy provider is if you aren’t sure - if you are paying the bills as a house, give them a ring with your meter readings and set up an account for your house so they know you have moved in, you should be able to add all of your names to the bill to make sure you are all equally liable Do you have insurance? Look after that stuff! - it’s an idea to get your stuff insured, shop around for a deal and try Endsleigh – a company dedicated to insuring students Make sure you have a recycling bin - Oh yes, the elusive blue bin! you SHOULD have one of these so check out page 12 for details of how to get one

10 TOP TIPS FOR HEATING & ELECTRICITY 1. If you have a wall mounted thermostat (one of these thingies) turn it down just one degree to make a difference without even noticing. Doing this will mean you will save up to £65 a year on your bills.

2. Turn off radiators in any unused rooms and make sure no furniture is blocking them so you can benefit from all the heat! Save up to £70 a year.

Occasionally you may want to bleed your radiators, this ensures you get the maximum heat, have an internet search to see how – it’s really easy.

3. Try closing your curtains and tucking them behind your radiator to keep heat from escaping out the windows 4. Chuck on a jumper before you whack up the heating or try a hot water bottle to warm up your bed before you hop in 5. Use your timer – ask your landlord how to use your boiler and make sure you know how to put the heating on time so it’s not wasting energy in the day when no one is in, just an hour in the morning and evening during winter will keep it ticking over nicely and help avoid damp!

6. Turn off your stuff – everything from chargers to lights, we all do it! Make a conscious effort to turn off lights when you leave a room and stop charging devices when they are full rather than leaving them on. Turning your TV off at the wall at night alone will save you between £40-80 a year.

7. Lighting – replace any bulbs with energy efficient ones, they’ve come a long way in recent years so don’t be put off! You could also speak to your landlord about getting LED lighting, which would save up to £45 over the lifetime of each bulb.

In the kitchen…

8. Only boil the water you need in the kettle 9. Don’t leave fridge door open & let your food cool before putting it in the fridge to save power 10. Put a lid on it – put lids on pans when cooking to reduce heat loss and thus energy loss (it also helps reduce moisture and avoid damp, and it cooks your stuff quicker!) That’s £5 saved!

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5 TOP TIPS FOR COOKING & WASHING 1. When you’re done cooking & the oven is off, leave the door open to let all that heat out so it doesn’t go to waste!

2. Cook in bulk – make enough for a few days, saves you cooking every day and uses the energy more efficiently.

Use locally sourced, seasonal veg in your cooking to be extra sustainable!

3. When you wash up use a bowl instead of leaving the tap running – this saves a lot of water.

4. Try veggie once in a while – the meat industry produces more carbon than the entirety of transport put together (7.7 billion tonnes, that’s mammoth) so eating veggie just once a week can help, plus it’s cheaper!

5. Try and save up your clothes so you have a full load and when you do wash them keep the temperature at 30 to make it a super energy efficient wash

Use eco-friendly washing products like Method and Ecover to be super green.

Only boil the water you need in the kettle, use a washing up bowl, and washing your clothes at 30 °c can save you nearly £50 a year!

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find more info at www.greenpad.co.uk

5 TOP TIPS FOR SAVING WATER We use 35 litres of water for your average 5 min shower – get a free shower timer from your water providers website to help you keep track of your shower time & water usage.

30% of your water bill is used up on flushing your loo…each flush uses anywhere between 6-13 litres of water!

A hippo bag can save up to 3 litres each flush and they’re free! Just ask your water provider

Saving up to £20 per year!

Don’t leave the tap running when you’re brushing your teeth and save nearly 6 litres each time.

Invest in a washing up bowl – gather all you’re washing up and do it all at once in a bowl rather than having the tap running in the background.

Got a drip? A dripping tap can waste 15 litres of water a day, that’s 5,500 litres a year. Give your landlord a call to get it fixed.

Around 21% of the average gas bill is spent on heating water, that’s £140 a year! Another reason to take quicker showers!

Reducing your water usage saves energy, cleaning waste water is an energy-intensive process, so is heating hot water, so it all counts.

find more info at www.greenpad.co.uk

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DAMP CREEPING IN? TRY THESE: If your house is insulated and energy efficient, it helps to keep away damp, which is why all GreenPad homes are insulated as standard. Here’s a few more tips to keep the damp away:

Always use lids when you’re cooking and make sure the extractor fan is on.

When the weather permits, dry your clothes outside if you can, not only does it reduce moisture but it doesn’t use energy and it’s free! Talk to your landlord about having a line fitted if you have any outdoor space, they’re super cheap and really work well. If you have to dry them in doors, choose a dedicated space in your house and make sure it is well ventilated and open windows regularly.

Make sure your bathroom is really well ventilated, 3 or 4 people showering each day racks up the moisture so make sure your landlord has fitted a good extractor fan and that you can open the windows. Make sure you keep the bathroom door closed after showering too so heat from the rest of the house doesn’t escape.

If it’s really too late, speak to your landlord, damp is a health risk and you have a right to have it removed, they can also hire a dehumidifier to try and combat it too.

If you feel your house needs some serious help let Housing Standards know at the council: housing.standards@stoke.gov.uk Visit our website for more info.

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GO SUPER SUSTAINABLE Got the other stuff cracked? Awesome, try this stuff to go the extra mile: Try veggie once in a while – the meat industry produces more carbon than the entirety of transport put together (7.7 billion tonnes. Every year. That’s mammoth!). Eating veggie just once a week can help, plus it’s cheaper. Join us on twitter for Meat Free Monday recipes and grab some prizes for your effort.

Reduce your palm oil demand - never heard of it right? Most people haven’t, it’s usually listed as “vegetable oil” and it’s pretty much in everything the average consumer uses. Its bad news because it is a major contributor to deforestation, destroying habitat of things like tigers, orang-utans and many more. Double check your products before you buy, check for RSPO sustainable palm oil, or even better none at all!

Ask your landlord about getting a smart meter – these are super-clever, free devices which automatically transmit your energy use to your provider and mean no more meter readings and more accurate bills. You need your landlord to contact your energy provider, as most prefer to speak to the home owner for this stuff.

Got a garden? Lucky you! Feed those plants with any left over water from your washing up rather than wasting it or using fresh water.

Re-use and Upcycle - it takes 2,700 litres of water to make a t-shirt. Yup. Just the one. When you think how many items of clothing we have in one wardrobe alone, that’s one thirsty clothes collection. Try swapping unwanted clothes with your mates or attending one of our swap shop events to grab some freebies, also try searching vintage clothes stores or charity shops to grab some bargains.

Shop Locally & Eat Seasonally – shipping your oranges from Africa isn’t exactly carbon neutral, check out your food labels in normal supermarkets and have a gander at where they’re from.

Eating seasonal food is a great way to ensure it hasn’t travelled far and has most likely been sourced within the country. Another way is to shop locally, for locally sourced produce then you definitely know where it’s coming from!

find more info at www.greenpad.co.uk

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RECYCLING & WASTE We generate 290 million tonnes of waste each year, only around 17% of this gets recycled.

Not got a dedicated recycle bin? Never fear, you can contact the council at Stoke City Councils website, or call/email them to get one on 01782 234234/01782 236685 or enquiries@stoke.gov.uk They usually want to speak to the homeowner, so get your landlord on board before hand and make sure he is available if they chose to speak to them.

Alternatively get your landlord to ring them directly and arrange for a recycle bin for the property. It takes effort, but imagine how much stuff you produce in just one day, then a week, then a month and then a whole year – you can make a massive impact using just ten mins of your time to organise a bin for your home and recycling your stuff.

COLLECTION DAY Friday

(Stoke)

(each week for black, every 2 weeks recycling) Please visit www.greenpad.co.uk for info on bin collections in other GreenPad areas

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find more info at www.greenpad.co.uk

There’s also this great website, www.recyclenow.com - which enables you to find local recycling centres to drop off all your stuff, from clothes to bottles! It also gives you your local council’s details, what you can recycle in your area and how to contact them which is really useful.

You can also reduce your waste demand by investing in some re-usable items like a BPA free water bottle or a re-usable thermal mug, this will help reduce the amount of paper coffee cups we generate which are mostly unrecyclable due to their plastic lining.

ALREADY GOT YOUR BIN? GREAT STUFF, YOU CAN RECYCLE! Tip: this is for Stoke areas only, please visit www.greenpad.co.uk for info on other GreenPad areas.

Black bin – all the stuff you can’t recycle (plastic bags, food waste (if you have no brown bin), packaging that isn’t recyclable)

Brown bin – food waste and garden waste (grass cuttings, branches, tea bags all that jazz)

Blue bin – cardboard (pizza boxes, cereal packets etc.), plastic (yoghurt pots, milk bottles, butter/ice cream tubs, bottles, shampoo bottles etc.), glass/ jars (for all those non-alcoholic beers….), clean foil, empty aerosols, tins/cans, loads of stuff!

Green Box if you have a blue bin – newspapers/magazines, junk mail, catalogues/yellow pages if you don’t have a blue bin – glass, tins, cardboard, cans, plastic bottles (if you see blue bins on your road but you don’t have one, you can’t put cardboard in your green box (don’t ask us why!) and ask your council for a blue bin too!)

No hot stuff, rubble or electrical items in any of these bad boys.

We produce 7 million tonnes of food waste each year. Another way to reduce food waste (and money!) is by cooking with leftovers, visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for great tips and cost-effective recipes.

find more info at www.greenpad.co.uk

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USEFUL INFO Now for the practical stuff, never used a boiler before? Never read a meter? Paying your own bills? Never fear, it’s actually really easy and we have guides online on what all those weird numbers mean. It also gives you great skills for when you leave uni, and by paying your own bills you get to pocket the difference at the end with money you don’t use.

Reading your meter – First off, which is which? Your electricity meter will have thinner electric wires coming out of it whilst your gas meter has thicker pipes coming out of it.

We’ll do electric first…

If you’re meter looks like this, you’re in for a treat. This is a dial meter, they are a bit harder to read, but not impossible by any means. So to read one of these bad boys follow these steps. Remember, we want 5 numbers...

Start with the dial on the far left, even if they are arranged slightly different to our example.We want 5 dials, ignore any others past this. Use the number it has just gone past, so in our case down here, this would be “0” for our first number.

Onto the next one…this looks like it’s on 5, but remember we’re after the one it has just gone past so we need “4”.

Following the same method the last three would be “7”, “3” and “5”.

Note – same rule applies if it’s between 9 and 0, this would be “9”.

These dial meters like to throw you off, some are anti-clockwise whilst some are clockwise, see which way the number go to figure this out and this will help decipher which number it has just gone past.

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Sometimes the dial looks like it’s right on top of a number, so you can’t tell if it’s gone past it or not. To help figure this out look to the dial on the right of it, if this shows a high number it hasn’t gone past the number it’s on top of, so list the one before. If it’s a low number, it has gone past, so list that number. What if it’s the last of the dials with no right on to compare it to I hear you cry! In this case, just use the number it’s on top of.

Now Digital Electricity Meters – these guys just make it easy for you, same rule applies – you’re after 5 numbers, read it from left to right. If it’s between the two, look to the right to work out if its passed the number or not, this one is 17319 (remember we only want 5 numbers so ignore the 0) Now gas…

The same rule applies, read from left to right. There are different types of gas meters, some are digital and some are dials similar to the electric examples above.

Some meters have four numbers before the decimal point (imperial ft3), some have five (metric m3). Gas is measured in cubic metres or feet usually, if it’s in metres you’ll see five numbers before the point, and if it’s in feet you’ll see four.

Either way, on your bill it is converted to kWh like electricity.

If its digital, read off the numbers from left to right and ignore any red numbers, or any in a red box, and any numbers on the right of the decimal point.

100

1000000

If it’s a dial meter, ignore any large or 5th dials, and follow the same rules as we used for electricity, reading from left to right. If its between two points chose the lower number it has gone past, ending up with 4 numbers.

Meter

This digital metric meter would read 75193.

0-1

1000

100000 10000

This dial meter would read 6653.

Epic Life Skills

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HOW ABOUT YOUR BILL? Head to www.greenpad.co.uk and visit our “Help” section for handy online guides regarding how to read your bill. Choose the greenpad tab and click the “help” page, all the info is right there.

Not got internet yet? We’ve been there. Come in and see us, were right next to squeeze, we can guide you through what to do next.

ANY PROBLEMS? Check out our website for useful tips and handy guides, or come in and see us, we’re right next to Squeeze Box. @greenpad_staffs greenpadstaffs greenpad@staffs.ac.uk

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find more info at www.greenpad.co.uk